The Institutes of Biblical Law, vol. 2: Law and Society
Overview
The purpose of Law and Society, this second of three volumes of The Institutes of Biblical Law, is to show how God's law applies to every aspect of our lives and the world. There are in God's word specified consequences, curses, and blessings for disobedience and obedience. We cannot understand history apart from that fact.
Moreover, as we look at our world, we need to be encouraged. Its disasters manifest the judgments of God. They make clear that now as always "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). If we are unhappy about the disasters and collapses of our time, we may be saying that we regret the failure of sin to prosper, and that we dislike the justice of God in its operations.
The purpose of this second volume is to point men to God and his Word for the government of their lives and our world. To serve and magnify God is the greatest of privileges and callings, as is the reconstruction of all things in terms of the Word of God. This, after all, is the purpose of life, to be conformed to God. This volume covers the relationship of biblical law to communion and community, the sociology of the Sabbath, family and inheritance, and much more; it also contains an appendix by Herbert Titus.
Top Highlights
“the parable, no strictly doctrinal error is charged against the reprobate” (Page 135)
“Theology is inseparable from civil government. Every civil government, every state, represents a theology in action as surely as does every church.” (Page 113)
“ have no area of independence from God and His word, and every desire for an independent thought, word, or act is sin.” (Page x)
“Legalism is a code of deeds and observances as a means of justification before God; it substitutes man’s acts for God’s redeeming act in Christ as the means of justification. When the law is made into a justifying ordinance, it is radically altered by this change. It is atonement which leads to acceptance before God, whereas a false means of atonement leads to judgment rather than to justification.” (Page 4)
“The key is Genesis 3:5. The tempter’s key plan is that every man should be his own god, knowing, or determining for himself, what constitutes good and evil. This is original sin; it is the basic sin of man and the underlying factor and foundation of all particular sins. When man tries to be his own god he is saying that he is not a creature, in particular that he is not God’s creature.” (Page x)
- Title: The Institutes of Biblical Law, vol. 2: Law and Society
- Author: Rousas John Rushdoony
- Publisher: Ross House Books
- Publication Date: 2001
- Pages: 752
Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) was was a well-known American scholar, writer, and author of over thirty books. He earned degrees from the University of California, received theological training at the Pacific School of Religion, and received an honorary Doctorate from Valley Christian University for his book The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum.
Rushdoony was an ordained minister and served as pastor at two California churches. He served for almost nine years as a missionary to the Shoshone and Paiute Indians in a remote area of Nevada. It was during this time as a missionary that Rushdoony began writing. The Institutes of Biblical Law and Commentary on the Pentateuch are just a few of the titles that Rushdoony has penned.
The Chalcedon Foundation, an educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and cogent communication of a distinctively Christian scholarship to the world at large, was founded by Rushdoony in 1965. He served as the editor of The Chalcedon Report, the monthly magazine of the Chalcedon Foundation.
Rushdoony also published the Journal of Christian Reconstruction and was an early board member of the Rutherford Institute which was founded by John W. Whitehead.